TMC accuses Modi of 'peddling lies' at Singur rally in Bengal

Kolkata, Jan 18 (PTI) The Trinamool Congress on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "peddling lies" at his Singur rally in West Bengal, asserting that contrary to his claims of large-scale infiltration, the authorities are yet to detect a large number of Bangladeshis in the voters' list in the SIR exercise.

TMC state president Joy Prakash Majumdar told PTI that Modi had spoken of the presence of a large number of infiltrators without clarifying whether border security was the responsibility of the Centre or the West Bengal government.

"For the past 11 years, Modiji has been repeating the same set of lies about infiltrators, Bangladeshis and Rohingyas without explaining how he arrived at such conclusions," Majumdar said.

He said the Election Commission itself had stated that the SIR exercise identified 58 lakh unmapped voters, a figure that, he claimed, did not support the allegations made by Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah or other BJP leaders.

"None of the omission of around 58 lakh names can be linked to the infiltration bogey. No Rohingya was found. The discrepancies occurred due to reasons such as death of voters, migration and duplicate entries," Majumdar said.

"So their allegations of infiltrations fall flat," he said.

On Modi’s remarks on law and order and crimes against women in West Bengal, the TMC leader cited National Crime Records Bureau data to claim that the situation was "far more serious" in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

He also questioned the PM's handling of other issues. "What was Modi doing when Manipur was in flames?” Majumdar asked, also referring to terror incidents in Kashmir and Delhi.

Modi on Sunday accused the TMC government of "playing with national security by aiding infiltrators" for vote-bank politics, and said it was necessary to end its "maha jungle raj" in West Bengal to pave the way for development and good governance.

Addressing a rally in Singur in Hooghly district, he alleged that the state government had "failed" to cooperate with the Centre on critical security measures, including border fencing.

"The TMC is playing with national security. They are trying to protect infiltrators because they consider them their vote bank," the prime minister claimed.

He asserted that illegal immigrants living in the state by forging documents must be identified and sent back to their countries. PTI SUS MNB